Amazon vs New York. You better pray Amazon wins this one.
The state of New York just passed a bill that could cause no end of grief to marketers who use affiliates to promote products. Amazon is challenging the bill as unconstitutional, and New York based affiliate marketers should be on their knees praying Amazon wins.
In most states, a company only has to collect taxes if they have a physical presence in the state.
New York has passed legislation re-defining physical presence to mean a company has a physical presence if it has even a single affiliate based in the state, or if a New York based site “earns a referral fee for sending customers to an online retailer.” Think Google Adwords on the New York Times?
If Amazon.com fails to defeat the state, it isn’t far fetched to suggest that Amazon might cut off all New York affiliates rather than lose sales by effectively raising prices for all the customers in that well-populated state.
And if Amazon.com does lose, look to other states to follow with a tax grab of their own, making Affiliate programs a lot less appealing for a lot of larger companies that currently run them.
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May 4th, 2008 at 9:30 am
If this sort of laws do get passed, it certainly has a huge impact on affiliate marketing programs that’s for sure.
I guess with the power of the internet and technological advancements, the law is starting to catch up so it can also have a share of what’s been happening in the world wide web.
May 4th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
This lawsuit doesn’t surprise me. I figured eventually the govt’ would want to add sales tax to all sales, even those across states.
May 8th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Hopefully this law won’t get passed or at least it will be tied up it litigation for a very long time.
Americans are sick and tired of being taxed to death for every little thing, even garage sales! It has been said that we have a tax rate at twice that of the time of Boston Tea Party. That’s why I am all for a flat tax. Abolish every other tax and only have a usage tax. If you don’t want to pay the tax don’t buy the item. Maybe then the politician will stop spending money on cherry wood desks and luxury car leases with our hard earned money.
Regardless of what happens with this legal battle. People will find a way around it. no matter what.
October 3rd, 2008 at 6:59 am
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June 11th, 2009 at 4:36 am
Thank you so much for this post. I use the reviewazon plugin. Reviewazon is the easy and simple way to add amazon affiliate product to your website.
May 18th, 2010 at 3:01 am
i have just signed up with the amazon affiliate program and i am still not earning a good deal of cash from them..*’
July 10th, 2010 at 9:08 pm
Amazon Affiliate program pays much better than other affiliate programs out there.,’,
October 14th, 2010 at 3:11 am
wood desk are the best, i really hate plastic desk coz it is not biodegradable’~,
October 20th, 2010 at 11:07 pm
my dad and i loves wood desk because it looks very cool and always impresses the visitors:.,
November 13th, 2010 at 8:43 am
ceramic cookware sets would be much preferable when you are cooking some certain foods “:~
December 4th, 2010 at 4:28 am
so far the best affiliate program for me is Amazon Affiliate. they have high tier rates and great payout “`~
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